There were a couple of things that were must eat in Tokyo and one of them was yakitori, which is grilled meats on skewers. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but Japan has it down to an art form. There is usually one chef overseeing the skewers on a tiny charcoal grill and he carefully seasons each piece with salt and turns the skewer with precision. It’s hard to explain, you just have to see it. Each piece is perfectly cooked and packed with flavor. We researched on Chowhound and found a place called Fuku a couple of subway stops away. It’s hidden in a small cute neighborhood with a tiny sign out front. Good thing I looked up photos of the place beforehand or else we would have walked right by it.

Peeking Inside Fuku

We had our hotel call ahead of time and they were all booked up for the night, but they said if we came at 8:30pm, we could take a table that had been there since 6:30pm. Turns out when we arrived that it would be another 30 min before they left—they must have had an epic 2.5 hour dinner! So we sat down around 9pm, bad news since we would have to get up at 3am for the Tsukiji fish market the next day. C’est la vie.

So we indulged ourselves and ordered skewers galore! Mike’s favorite was the chicken neck, and I loved the chicken thigh and shitake mushrooms. They were so good and we had some good sake to wash it all down. Since it’s a small grill and the chef gives you one skewer at a time, dinner is stretched out over a long time. Now we know why each table stays so long. We also noticed that here, unlike the ramen place, Mike and I were gobbling down our skewers as soon as they came out and other diners still had a lot of food in front of them. It looked like most tables were here for the long haul and just kept drinking!

Chicken Thigh with Scallions

Shitake Perfection

Chicken Neck with Onions

We loved watching the chef manning the grill, he’s the only one that gets to cook the meats. Even when he sprinkles salt on each skewer, he has this waving hand motion that’s almost like a little dance. We had probably around 6 skewers each and were stuffed by the end. So much fun.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

About Me

I love finding the magic in the everyday--it's those little moments that make you smile.

In early 2012, I went on a 4 month trip around Asia with my husband, and here's where we shared our stories and photos! Now we are now living as expats in Nairobi, Kenya (with 2 months in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania first) and will continue to share our adventures here.